Wood is an awfully good sport. And the kids look deceptively sweet and Hummel-esque.
I was at the New Holland Brewing Company a couple years back, and they had beer in a boot!
Gram and Junie look so cute in those costumes.
I used this pattern back in college for some RenFaire or another. Quite manageable.
http://www.folkwear.com/123.html
you are traversing the state and dredging up my memories. i am a detroiter who moved to grand haven and thought she died and went to heaven. then circumstances allowed a chance to move to atlantic beach, florida and we came but my soul was twisted every which way at the thought of leaving michigan, my michigan.
i spent a lot of time on lakeshore drive between grand haven and holland in the two short years we were there.
i spent more time in the city of detroit.
your blog is like coming home, and then some.
isn't flower day at eastern market coming soon?
looking forward to another season of (photos of) fruits and vegetables from the city!
My best friend is about to marry a Dutchman (who runs his family's garbage collecting company in Chicago). I should warn her.
Great photos! What a beautiful family! Your wife is an extremely good sport.
I balked when my Australian fiance offered to order me an Aussie flag bikini. But it was $70 for a square yard of fabric, plus international shipping.
mmmm...
Fatballs.
the name just makes them sound so temptingly delicious! i hope you ate your own body-weight in them?
What a great photo!!!
Those photos are priceless! On a side note: last year we did see ONE male dancer in the high school competition. He was a good foot taller than all the women and about half their body weight, but boy could he klomp.
This may be my favorite post ever. This pictures of the kids are adorable and would probably have opposite their intended effect on any future love interests. But one question remains: what are fatballs?
Huh-larious!!! Great post. Thanks for the laughs this morning. I needed it. And the kiddos are darling in their costumes.
I agree with an above poster. Reading your blog is like coming home. I love my Michigan! (Though living in Colorado isn't much to complain about)
We have many family photos of my sister and I as young girls wearing dirndls. My mother still has the dirndls hanging in the closet, waiting for a grandchild of the female kind to wear them. But part of me thinks I'm going to put my boys in them anyway.
Wood is an incredibly good sport. I'm guessing she's going to sew up a costume for you to wear next year?
GORGEOUS!!!!
The kids look great, Wood looks beautiful (good sport, that wife of yours), and now I must go ask the internets what a 'Fatball' is.
The last photo of your wife and kids is precious. You are a lucky guy. Good luck convincing Wood to sew herself a corset, you perv! 
When I google "fatball dutch", it asks me if I mean "football dutch". Clearly the internets have never heard of a fatball. I'm imagining some type of funnel-cake-like substance but in a ball instead of a pile? either that or deep-fried butter.
I think those pictures will actually create love interests rather than destroying them. Deploy with care.
I will lay to rest the question of what fatball is: it's vet boellen, or "fat balls," lumps of sweetened dough deep-fried.
I encouraged you last year and will do so again: you guys need to take those costumes on the road and hit up Pella Iowa's Tulip fest! I think it's often the same weekend as Holland's. I maintain that Pella's is more authentic, than Holland's. We would NEVER stoop to translating vet boellen, for example. There's even a Heineken loft at the Opera House, although they're served in plastic cups, not glass boots.
Also, if your kids met mine, I think the world would explode from uber-Dutch cuteness: http://www.flickr.com/photos/331...N00/3520815482/
Ahh, the memories. I grew up in Flushing, MI (now living on the coast of SC), and your descriptions always bring back such sensory overload. My extended family would make an annual trip to Frankenmuth for the famous family-style chicken dinners. I have several ornaments that grace my tree from Bronners humongous Christmas store...and more than one glass boot beer mug in my cupboard.
Lovely. I laughed very hard, which is difficult to do when one is sitting inside a cubicle farm..
I think I should get in touch with my Dutch heritage and attend Tulip Time. Or, even better, go to the Netherlands and try to find out where my great-grandparents came from. Past my great-grandfather's birthplace (Goes) it's a big blank spot.
Near where I grew up in Ohio we had the Maple Sugar Festival AND the Ox Roast Festival! I love regional festivals.
Essen House in Madison, WI serves beer in glass boots.
I hear they call it "Das Boot."
LOL from the Netherlands! Absolutely fantastically weird festivals you are having. Keep up the cute pictures!
Great post, but--Bummer! We were at the Tulip festival with Gabe and Maggie this weekend too...I know Gabe would've loved to have done some klompin with P--and we could've gotten to hang with the people we know would've been good friends if we hadn't left town so soon after meeting. Been following the blog often and never fail to be moved, humored, heartened...thanks.
You, sir, have made my day.
I'm an Ann Arbor native, now at Calvin College and I still haven't gotten used to all the conservative blond private school Dutchishness that runs this place. Frankly, I'm a little scared to go to Holland :P
My RA went to Holland Christian, and it's pretty funny to think of my her klomping away and wagging her finger.
OMG, what adorable children. You guys seem like such a wonderful little family (despite the whole Dutch thing ... have to say that; I'm German, you know ...).
I have marched in that festival (and in the one in Pella, but that's a whole 'nother story) and I can do the dance. Punishment instead should be making prisoners wear the shoes.
This made me laugh today and now I am a bit homesick...you just can't get a good fatball in Philly. 
Oh and the best fatballs have rasins in them.
Great Post as usual...
but I have to tell you.. your Pics and Prose from "Mocking my own heritage" post
." I do think this dance move is exactly how Wood was tricked into touching her first penis.
I nearly pissed myself with laughter.
.. that and .....
Just as I was taking this picture of how pretty some Dutch men are, the wooden shoe this fellow was wearing went flying and hit some old lady in her eye. That was the highlight of my week.
It really was a DEPENDS kind of moment.. Thank You.. ( I think )
Wow, this post was just what I needed. Whenever I have a bad day I'm going to think about those Dutch teenagers, klomping and finger-wagging away.
And I don't know how you bribed Wood into wearing that costume, but I'm guessing it wasn't with fatballs. In any case, well done, sir!
I cannot stand the CUTENESS of this shot. Gah! My teeth are hurting. So so very sweet. Love it.
I too have been to Holland. I remember most the corniness of the whole thing, but on re-examination today, I keep thinking that this would make a really great Christopher Guest movie.
I'm disappointed you weren't in costume in the family photo too!
No one self-deprecates as well as you do, Dutch.
What's up with the little bit of scolding in the middle of the dance number? Is it none-too subtle reminder that they should all guilty for spending quality daylight hours at dance instead of at work?
Super awesome costumes!
So sweet, what a beautiful family. I married into a Norwegian family - it's similar but with a little more alcohol. My introduction to "fire wine" was amusing to say the least. The national costumes are just as enticing. My husband and I used to visit as many light houses in MI as we could when we lived in Hart/Ludington. One of the best years ever.
Sausage and fatballs: Not just for breakfast anymore!
Teenage me would despise me, but I have to admit that I miss akward festivals. What did your kids think of the glockenspiel?
That dancing looks super fun, actually. The wooden clogs make such a satisfying sound.
For real this was made up by a high school gym teacher though?
4 realz.
I've been told that I need to visit Frankenmuth next time I traverse up that way. But after years of being subjected to one too many hours of eternal Christmas, I don't think my boyfriend would ever take me. ^_^
She is such a good sport!!
In my opinion, Belgium has way too many bibles aready.
Can we return them?
Hi. I was just surfing around some blogs, and I came across yours. It's pretty nifty and I'm really enjoying my stay here. I've bookmarked your site for daily visits, and I hope you'll visit me. I'd love to have you. Have a great day and I'll see you around the blogosphere.
I grew up going to Frankenmuth, as my German rooted grandparents lived about 20 miles away from "Christmas year-round" town. I even grew up knowing Linda, the well known performer at the Fischerplatz. My grandpa would throw back his Heinekins, and grab my grandma for a little oompa-pa. I despised it as a kid, but now, when I go back to visit, I have a yearning to go. I even made the DJ play some polka at our wedding-I think your kids will probably be embarrased to wear their lovely Dutch heritage clothes as they grow older, but once they realize that their dad was pretty knew what was going on, they'd make their kids dress up in the same silly Dutch clothing. Kudos to you for keeping it alive!
Oh, and when I lived in Europe, I never saw so many mullets on children, specifically in Germany. We called them "Kindermullets"...
This post makes me wish I'd been paying closer attention to the hordes of out-of-towners. The key to Tulip Time is touched on in this post: embrace, embrace.
I can't believe the grandparents didn't offer to watch the kids so you and Wood could go to the New Holland beer tent. I moved away the year they introduced the beer tent. AND YES, New Holland does serve beer in a boot. And I haven't read anything about you visiting the Wooden Shoe Restaurant lately. The food there is dutchier than anything downtown served by the churches.
OK, for German/Dutch-ish girls in costumes serving up good beer, check out the Rathskeller (sp?). They also have a fabulous chili cookoff in the summer, and a great Oktoberfest.
Dear Lord - what I wouldn't do for a fatball induced coma. On that same note, I'd also kill for a Bird's Nest breakfast from the Windmill. Those were the days... I do realize there's more to Holland memories than food.
In reading one of your recent posts, I also came across an archived post about Russ' - WOW! It was more than just a restaurant in Holland - it was a lifestyle. Nothing beats ordering your meal using the phone installed at your booth.
I stumbled upon this earlier today, thought you'd like to see that the beer boot thing could be a reality:
http://www.homewetbar.com/German...16oz-p-
715.html
I used to live in Amsterdam NL, and I think there they call fatballs oliebollen and they are pretty much only available around Christmas.
Your bicycle piled with baskets and babies would win you some real street cred, but your average nederlander is probably just as conservative as their American descendants -- weed and hookers are strong business ventures.
OMG, I had almost totally forgotten about the Oliebollen (fatballs)! It feels weird to be reading from "home" in Michigan. I'm back for a visit, although I missed tulip time. I'm back for my sister's wedding...and where do you think she got married? Why Windmill Island of course. Thankfully, no wooden shoes were required.
Sorry we missed you at Tulip Time; we've enjoyed your work for a while now. Next time, look us up; the boot o' beer is on me!
For the record: there are some boys who dance but there are few and far between. Most who try are put-off by the rigorous workout. I danced in the Holland High teachers' group (we danced with the high schoolers) for six years and can vouch! Out of curiosity I once asked if I could dress as a girl, to counter the prevailing girl-as-boy practice. The klompen nazis said "absolutely not!". Maybe it was my beard.
I found your blog a few months ago through the posts on Detroit, & have been enjoying the urban landscape stuff a lot.
I grew up in Holland, & my family still lives there, but I haven't seen Tulip Time since I was 13. (There are the inevitable costumed baby pictures almost submerged in tulips, the tiny wooden shoes). A strange feeling to read this, partly nostalgia, partly verfremdungseffekt; I think I might know less about my hometown now than somebody seeing it for the first time.
I don't even know what fatballs are, but I miss elephant ears. And the street-cleaning parade.
Incidentally, in or about 1952, the story goes (my dad told me; I might get the details wrong) the prime minister of the Netherlands visited Holland, MI and made the mistake of landing on a Sunday. All he wanted was a drink.(You couldn't even mow your lawn on Sundays in Holland back then without getting dirty looks from the neighbors). My great-grandfather (on the town welcoming committee) was the only person willing to give him his preferred brand of scotch; my dad remembers the PM hanging out in the living room.
Whenever I see pictures of your kids, I wonder. How did she get so tall? How is it even possible that he can stand on his own already? My cats, they are just getting fatter.
you're a good dad.
So funny. I live just minutes from Holland and have never considered attending the Tulip Festival. Religious fanatic dutchies scare me--Grand Rapids is bad enough!
But...this looks like so much fun when you present it. Your kids will have such cool memories of this weird festival.
Thanks for sharing- this post was so much fun.
you should come to gaylord for alpenfest.
Well i am Dutch and i have never read such a bad and false explanation about our tradional folkdancing.
You gotta be an American.
By the way Holland is just one of the 12 states of the Netherlands.
Commenting by HaloScan
